cooper



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

5 JOSEPH C. COOPER, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO HARRIET CHARLOTTE COOPER, OF SAME PLACE.

FUELCOMPOSITION.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent NO. 279,479, dated June 12, 1883.

Application tiled February 7, 1883.

(No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JOSEPH OONOKLEN COOPER, of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain new an d useful Improvements in Fuel Compositions for insuring the practically perfect combustion of the same, and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of my said invention.

It is well known that by all the ordinary methods of combustion in furnaces a very large proportion of the heat escapes and fails to be utilized, owing to the practical impossibility of bringing the oxygen of the atmosphere into sufficiently intimate contact with the fuel to insure the complete combustion thereof, only a relatively-small portion of the fuel being converted into carbon dioxide, while a larger portion escapes in the form of carbon protoxide, or carbonic oxide, so called, there being, moreover, a further waste in practice from the combustion which occurs at the rear portion of the furnace and thence expands into the uptake or smoke-stack, and passes off with the gaseous products of combustion; there being, also, a further waste of heat from the fact that not only the large volume of unconsumed oxygen caused to pass through the fuel, but also the volume of nitrogen mingled therewith, is heated to a high degree and carries away a proportionate quantity of heat in passing from the furnace.

Various mechanical appliances have been used to compel the closer contact, so-tospeak, of atmospheric oxygen with the fuelsueh as blowers and similar apparatus but with none of these has any material economy been effected.

The object of my inventionis to provide for the more perfect combustion of fuel, by providing thereto substances that, when subjected to heat, give off oxygen, which said oxygen being in substantially immediate contact with the fuel, and so disposed with reference thereto as to unite with the carbon at the high heat E of the furnace, which insures the complete conversion of the carbon into carbon dioxide or I carbonic oxide, thereby insuring complete combustion and the production of a maximum amount of heat within the furnace itself, and practically without any considerable loss from the causes which, as hereinbefore explained, are inherent in the combustion of fuel by the aid of atmospheric air alone.

I am aware that a fire-kindling compound has been proposed, consisting of chloride of sodium, sulphate of iron, and nitrate of pot ash; but this, while it would doubtless accelerate the ignition of fuels, would not properly utilize the heat-producing properties thereof. I am also aware that it has been proposed to combine starch, sulphate of aluminium, and and nitrate of soda with carbonaceous matter to produce an artificial fuel but this, while capable of cementing the particles of culm or waste coal, and perhaps promoting in some slight degree the combustion thereof, is not capable of practical application to the coal of commerce. I am also aware that a solution of a soft sulphate of soda and muriate of ammo nia in water has been applied to fuel to promote the combustion thereof but this was difficult to handle, bulkyto transport, and liable to be rendered valueless by contact with an alkali-such as potash-and which may be to some extent expected as the result of combus tton of most fuels. I am also aware that other nitrate compounds have been proposed 5 but these have been costly in their effects and incapable of producing a maximum of heat. My

invention differs from all these in the character of the materials employed, and in the nature, and especially in the extent, of the re sults produced.

- In the practice of my invention I use, in combination with the fuel, a compound hereinafter more fully set forth, which, when decomposed in the fire, renders up the equivalent of oxygen required to convert the carbonic oxide, or carbon protoxide produced by the fuel, into carbon dioxide or carbonic acid, thereby obviating the necessity of the superior volume of air which would be required to produce such conversion of the one carbon oxide into the other, said volume of air being, as hereinbefore explained, practically unattainable in ordinary methods of or apparatus for combustion.

' of sodium, or common salt.

In the practice of my invention, I take aluminium as the same is contained in alums or in the well-known aluminous cake or in aluminous earths. I also take chloride of sodium, or common salt. I also take sulphate of soda. These are used in connection with each other in variable proportionsthat is to say, the proportions may vary within wide limits 3 but in practice I prefer to take, say, one part, by weight, of the aluminous cake or aluminous earth, two parts, by weight, of the sulphate of soda, and four parts, by weight, of the chloride These I mix together, and sprinkle the compound thus formed on the carbonaceous fuel in the proportions of, say, from twenty-four to thirty-six ounces (more or less) to each ton of two thousand pounds; or, in lieu of this, I dissolve the said compound in wateras, for example, from twenty-four to thirty-six ounces (more or less) of said compound in from six to eight quarts (more or less) of waterand sprinkle or otherwise apply this as uniformly as possible to the fuel. The application of the compound, either in its dry or in its liquid condition, may be made either immediately before burning or at any suitable time previouslyas, for example, a month (more orless) as convenience .may dietate. hen the fuel treated or supplied with the said compound is ignited afire much quicker, brighter, and complete than occurs with fuel supplied only with atmospheric air is obtained, the gases evolved from the fuel by this primary combustion or conversion into can bonic oxide being quickly consumed and converted int-o carbonic acid, while the sulphurous gases and the like are themselves also consumed,this combustion of the sulphur itselfadding to the heating-powerof the fuels. This action is continued until the fuel sare entirely con sumed, leaving fine, light ashes, comparatively free from clinker, as the product of the combustion due, as hereinbefore explained, in the first instance, to the access of atmospheric air, which converts the carbon into carbonic oxide, and, secondarily, to to the oxygen supplied by the compound, which converts said carbonic oxide into carbonic acid, so that by the improved combustion thereby obtained a given quantity of fuel affords practically all the heat theoretically available therefrom. It generates steam faster in boilers than is done by ordinary furnaces, and when the said method of combustion is employed in smelting or other similar operations of metallurgy, the quality of the 111etal produced is greatly improved, inasmuch as the sulphur is destroyed before it is afforded an opportunity of combining with the metal.

VVhat I claim as my invention is The improved combustible composed of carbonaceous fuel, alumina, as the same is @011- tained in alums, aluminous cake, or aluminous earths, chloride of sodium, or common salt,

and sulphate of soda, all substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

JOSEPH CONOKLEN COOPER. \Vitnesses:

DANFORTH BECKER, RUnoLr H. BJELLMAN. 

